He wanted to mark the occasion. Accompanied by the Ministers of the Interior and Housing, Édouard Philippe traveled on Tuesday, June 9, to the Paris suburbs, in Évry, in Essonne, to meet the police and members of an association of insertion. He called for "respect and trust" for the police, but also for "high standards".

"We wanted to convey this message of trust and respect (...) at a time when the emotion is very great, very legitimate, very shared," said the Prime Minister during the visit.

"We owe them respect and trust", as does "the vast majority of French people", but "we also have a duty to demand from them", he added.

He recalled the current context, returning to the death of George Floyd, the 46-year-old black American who was killed during his arrest in Minneapolis. Édouard Philippe stressed that "emotion" was "shared in all countries of the world" following the "dissemination of images showing the death of a man in unacceptable and, frankly, monstrous conditions".

Tribute to the mission of the police and gendarmes

The head of government began his intervention by recalling the first sentence of the declaration of human rights: "Men are born free and equal in rights". "It is the exact opposite of a society which would be based on belonging to a religion, on skin color or on distinctions which would have nothing to do with this fundamental idea," he said. valued.

He also paid tribute to the police and gendarmes, who "are on the front line" to "protect us all". "Their mission is frighteningly difficult," he said, because they are "confronted with tensions, with threats and risks".

After talking to the police at the Évry police station, he said that they had expressed "their emotion and sometimes their incomprehension in front of a certain number of critics of which they are the object".

Christophe Castaner had advocated Monday at a press conference a "zero tolerance" of racism in the police, whose suspension will be "systematically considered for every suspicion proven" in the matter. Words that displeased several police unions, as well as elected LR and the National Rally.

With AFP

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